by Michael Charles
Dr. Alex Otieno – mission medic
Yes, I was the first person to find the body, other than the humanoid who saw the whole thing from the ship. The crew calls the humanoid Joliet. The humanoid can see all our cameras during the walk on the object’s surface.
When it happened, the mic chat went into a meltdown. No one knew what just happened. One of our guys was just murdered by a humanoid. A robot, like you.
Yes, it has been two days since we landed on the rock. What time is it on Earth? My mind is lost. I am still shaking off the hibernation. Like a hangover and a stroke with permanently pruned fingers.
Wednesday, it’s Wednesday.
Our objective? Our mission objective is to continue the exploratory investigations of the rock. It’s called Te Kore Roa and it’s a Trans-Neptunian Object, hidden amongst the Kuiper Belt, out past Neptune. You’ll have to ask Dr. Mortimer about that name, she knows more than me. She’s the Astrogeologist. Her job is to collect samples from the rock. She’s extremely smart, the smartest woman I know, and the kindest.
Did I pass? Am I sane?
Maybe a good question is why the hell are we here on this rock? We’re here because this rock is the greatest discovery in human history. This is America, the atom bomb, penicillin and bagels all wrapped into one.
I’ve been having strange thoughts lately. I’m sitting here, next to the window looking out into the total darkness. The sun barely touches here at all, Neptune blocks the sun most of the time. But when there is light, even just for a few moments, it’s beautiful but also sad. It makes me realise how far from home I am.
We were on a scheduled walk on the asteroid surface. There is a cave on the surface of the object. Beyond is a darkness that is … total. This is the section of the cave that is still… within the rock. At some point, somewhere off in the darkness, the cave is no longer within the rock. It goes out the other side … and keeps going.
Yes, as the medic I conducted an examination of the body, though cause of death was obvious. What I have enclosed is for the purposes of the investigation.
It looked like a two-pronged attack, starting from the rear. That would be my guess. Oxygen tubes attached to the back of his mask were damaged. Burn marks around the edges, maybe a thin-point laser was used. Most likely a hand-held las-cutter, the type that we use for making holes in metal. The attacker smashed his mask as well, maybe with a rock; he had an epidural hematoma the size of a grapefruit. His face was swollen grotesquely, like a frozen wax-work potato with hair. It looks as though he had slumped forward. The cause of death could have been the head trauma, but more likely it was the asphyxiation. There was an abrasion on the back of the head, where his skull bounced off the back of the helmet, a secondary injury.
His name was Klosko. He was an engineer, but he had also worked for Martian Intelligence for decades. He spilled many stories to me when we were drinking. He would not be an easy person to kill, that much is true.
But the humanoids are stronger than humans, that much is also true. The other one, the one that killed Klosko, is called Elwood. I don’t think that anyone can remember who came up with the names. My credits are on Harrington.
I was with Dr. Mortimer, taking soil samples from the mouth of the cave. Klosko went charging up ahead, disappearing into the dark of the cave. We called to him to stay back; we weren’t instructed to venture any further into the cave. But he went anyway. Elwood went on ahead to bring him back. He didn’t say a word, just started to follow.
When the captain heard he was heading out of range, he started screaming down the mic. I could hear a lot of fear in his voice.
The cave has rings of smooth rock, that line the ceiling and walls, that disappear out of sight. Standing at the mouth of the cave, it gives the impression of staring down a throat.
“Joliet” – humanoid
I have no issue with being recorded, all my sensory information is logged with command. You are welcome to it.
Joliet is a moniker provided by the crew. I presume they use it as ridicule of some form. Who knows why humans do what they do?
No sir, I was not present during the altercation. I was on the bridge, observing each crew members helmet feed. I can watch all of them simultaneously. Unfortunately, there was a burst of ionising radiation emitted from somewhere deep inside Te Kore Roa, which disrupted the video feeds in some of the helmets at the time. This included Klosko and my humanoid colleague Elwood who were closest to the centre of the object.
Some of the footage was disturbed, yes. You are welcome to watch it. The clear footage from my humanoid colleague’s helmet shows that Klosko is far in the distance, disappearing into the dark of the cave. My colleague catches up with him quickly, but by this point the footage is so poor, you can barely make out what happens. I see Klosko throw a punch – a wild haymaker at my colleague, you can briefly see his eyes. I analysed the expression of his face through certain markers, his pupil dilation, a flushness in his face that I could detect even through the poor footage. Yes, it is my opinion he had taken leave of his senses. My belief is that radiation emitted from deep within the object, combined with the immense psychological burden of the mission took a tragic toll on Klosko. He became violent. Suicidal. It is my opinion that he cut his own oxygen tubes. His destroyed mask may have been caused by the fall.
My colleague is different, yes. Our relationship is nonetheless one of equality, we are both equally here to serve the commission. Yes, I suppose that would include the protection of the crew onboard the ship.
Which is why my colleague couldn’t possibly have killed Klosko. It would be physically impossible for him to is desad.
“Elwood” – humanoid (confession)
During the expedition into the cave of Te Kore Roa, crew member Klosko and I had a violent altercation.
Dr. Mortimer and Dr. Otieno were collecting samples of dust and rock from near the entrance to the cave. My duty was to carry some of the equipment and conduct field analysis. Dr. Mortimer can provide samples which are analysed by chemistry and mineralogical instruments.
My role? I can provide immediate analysis for Dr. Mortimer, so that she might be able to adapt her studies whilst we are on the object. This is one of my duties as a humanoid colleague on this mission. Field analysis.
Klosko was assisting with field studies when he informed Dr. Mortimer, Dr. Otieno and I that he was going into the cave. I was close enough to see his face, illuminated by a pale blue underlighting in his helmet.
“I think I go down a bit further and take look,” he said. Yes, I have developed a talent to recreate tonal inflections. It grew organically I suppose. Notice, if you will, the slurring. It is an exact replication of his voice.
What did I do then? Immediately I did nothing. I turned to my human colleagues for instruction. Both looked panic stricken. After a long moment of deliberation Dr. Mortimer radioed to the captain, who didn’t respond. In the wake of my human colleagues’ inaction, I made the decision to go down and bring him back.
It didn’t take me long to catch up to Klosko, who was already some way into the cave. The cave is vast and immense, and Klosko had managed to travel far in that space of time. The edges are half a kilometre apart, and high enough that the Hardrada itself – you, that is – could have flown inside with space to spare. Before long the cave curves down into the TNO, and the brief light of the extremely distant sun is lost. But I can see Klosko’s helmet lights ahead.
I called to him over the radio, but he doesn’t respond. I have a longer stride than him, and I caught up to him quickly.
“I’m going to go now,” he said. He recoiled when I touched him, almost losing his balance. “I will be back. Don’t follow me.” Notice there in his voice the distractedness, and the uncertainty. You don’t recognise it? I have a developed empathic centre, that perhaps your creators did not give you.
I pull hard on his shoulder this time and he almost falls. At this moment he lurches at me, throwing one fist and then the other. His eyes are wild with a look that I haven’t seen on him before, as though something had completely overtaken him. He tried to pull at my oxygen tubes, but I am much faster than he is.
He fell at first, cracking his visor. It is my opinion that colleague Klosko was intoxicated to begin with. His tubes may have detached as he fell, as I grasped to hold on to him.
A las-cutter? I disagree with Dr. Otieno’s assessment. I had no such instrument on my person at the time.
I couldn’t say what caused him to act in this way. Something had affected Klosko, that drew him inwards and downwards. The nature of the object transcends all reason. Who is to say that an organic mind will hold together on the edge of logic?
I am sorry that Klosko is dead.
Dr. Jill Mortimer – Astrogeologist
Yes, I watched first Klosko and then the humanoid enter the cave. We radioed to the Captain, but he did not respond. Alex Otieno and I continued our work, believing that the humanoid would bring him back.
I would describe Klosko’s personality as impulsive and callous. I am sure the psychologist said the same thing.
I would like to take a moment. This is all so absurd. Not just the murder, but everything.
Te Kore Roa was described by a Polynesian observatory, a team in Hawai’i, hence the name. It means ‘the great far-extending void’; a part of their creation myth, though I am not well versed on the subject myself. They said it used to glow, to make strange effervescent pulsations in the night sky, barely visible without telescopes. It was clear that radiation was pouring out of the rock. No one else saw it. There are larger telescopes on Martian territory. The Olympus Mons Observation Platform is the final human wonder if you ask me.
I feel better now, thank you. What do I do? My role on the mission is academic. Almost all TNO’s in that area of the Belt share similar features. But Te Kore Roa’s composition was different. It’s more like it came from somewhere further away, an interstellar interloper. I’m here to work out what kind of rock it is, and how it has such … fucking fascinating properties. That’s my role. That’s what I’ve spent a decade working on. I don’t want to lose this chance.
I’m losing myself again.
The Outer Zone starts as a cave. It leads down into the core of the rock and then… well then it goes out the other end. It’s the space beyond where we would expect the edge of the TNO to be… from the outside, beyond the threshold. Where the space inside the TNO should stop, but it doesn’t. It keeps going. We have no idea what causes this. A quarter of a mile into the Outer Zone, there is another Threshold. It doesn’t look like anything, it’s totally invisible. One second you are in the vacuum of space with no air, and then suddenly there is air, warmth, stronger gravity. That is the Inner Zone, the habitable area. An earlier mission went into the Inner Zone, a few years back, I think.
I’m going off track. I know how important this investigation is. Someone’s dead, I know. But sometimes I can’t help it. We don’t know what this means. How do we approach it? Is it a warning? A vessel? And here I am, plucked from a mid-level University research department. Flown out here to examine it. What if I learn nothing at all?
Please don’t send me back with nothing.
Dr. Otieno and I were collecting samples when Klosko disappeared into the cave, shortly followed by the humanoid. We stopped and stared, but we didn’t move. Our responsibilities do not include managing the other members of the crew. That is captain Huang’s responsibility. Klosko’s behaviour is his own.
I could only just see Klosko’s face before he disappeared. I would say that he looked mournful, very different from how he had been through training. Before the long journey in cryo-sleep, Klosko was a real joker. But the look on his face before he disappeared was different. He looked as though he had resolved himself to doing something.
I believe the TPO does have properties that can affect the crew. In what ways I am not yet certain. Did Joliet mention the radiation? It’s a theory.
Did you know that for androids, the size of sub cortical structures is directly linked to functioning, where in humans a link has only been made with some cortical structures. Bigger is better for them. And did you know that Elwood’s synthetic amygdala is massive? He has demonstrated rapid and expanding neuroplasticity. And not just the amygdala, but also the prefrontal cortex, and God knows what else! I have been looking at their vitals whilst they sleep. The change has occurred as we have got closer to Te Kore Roa. So yes, the rock does have effects on both humans and androids.
You can see Neptune for half the day when the faint rays of sunlight reach us. True, she is beautiful … and terrifying. I don’t know how to explain it. The rings of Saturn reflect with an incandescent sparkle when the sun shines over them. Depending on the hour, Jupiter’s storm either looks like an inferno, or an angry boil on pale skin.
But Neptune … it’s not the same. Looking into the Great Dark Spot gives you a feeling that I suspect is like standing on the edge of a sea-bed canyon, looking down into nothing. Then something moves. Something so massive that you can’t see the edge of it, as though the ocean itself shifted. When the sun sets across this part of the system, it feels even worse knowing that it’s there in the darkness, and you can’t see it.
One night I dreamt that it blinked. I woke up screaming.
The pills help.
Excuse me, I think I’m going to puke now.
Philip Huang – Hardrada captain
I don’t think I have been affected by the mission. I knew about the object and the previous missions before I volunteered.
That is the second mission, to come back with any information on the fate of the last crew to come here. The vanishing crew. I don’t suspect we will find anything.
Before this? I flew cargo runs to the Venus Solar Farms. That’s where I met my co-pilot Harrington. We grew up on opposite sides of the North-Eastern Sprawl, but I moved to the Hellas Basis Project when I got my license.
Klosko was a good worker, he excelled at everything during training. I remember that Harrington once placed an electronic sticker on Klosko’s footlocker, so the processing desk thought it was a highly confidential piece of equipment. It had to be sent back to be signed off that it wasn’t government property. Set us back three hours that day, but it was worth it. When he got out, Harrington was rolling on the floor laughing, wiping tears away. I was standing at the side of the room, trying to cover my face. I thought Klosko was going to kill him, he had that look on his face.
But he broke mission protocol. No one was to go beyond the mouth of the cave. If there was information about what happened to the last crew on the surface of the rock, we had to report this back. The specialist was to retrieve samples, and then return to the ship. That’s it.
I got on the radio when I saw that he had disconnected. Joliet was with me. When I saw that Elwood had gone after him, I thought that this might be resolved somehow. Maybe Elwood could … I don’t know. Knock him out, bring him back. Or just carry the psychopath back to the ship. Just as he caught up to him, the video feed crackled. Joliet told me that it was interference from the asteroid. Maybe that’s true. When it unscrambles, I see one dead crew member through the eyes of the other.
What do you do then? Who do you call for back up?
The humanoid carried the body back to the ship, slung over his shoulder like he was barely anything at all. He walked right past the doctors, who just stared at them, slack jawed and eyes wide. Elwood came on board the ship and dropped the body in the airlock. Harrington pulled his weapon on the humanoid, and we frog marched him into the back room, locked him in. That’s where he stays.
I thought killing a human was against their nature. Must mean that Elwood is a defective tool. What luck I have for the Commission to have given me a broken product. It’s the Commissions fault.
You are looking in the wrong places. You’re not considering the object, and the effects that it could have on us all. Not just here on this ship, but on Earth as well. What do the public know? Anything at all? I doubt it. But then, you’re a machine, like the other two. You must think with the number’s you’re given. You can’t comprehend the object any more than we can.
The rock is endless, limitless. Who the fuck knows where it goes? Maybe it leads through to the other side. I don’t think it’s here to help, I think it’s here to warn us. Madness is inside the rock. Our collective madness. I shouldn’t have taken this job. Why did I take this job?
I pick good workers. And working robots.
Harrington – Hardrada co-pilot
I have worked with Huang for much longer than the Venus trips. We met on a station off world Ganymede. I won’t take another gig like this, working for the big corps, even if Huang does. I don’t need it.
The robot did it, without a doubt. He was dysfunctional, and he finally snapped. Klosko is a vicious, trained killer. No matter how tough one of those robots are, they are still squishy flesh like us. They have skin and veins that bleed when cut, just as we do. But maybe their veins are full of something else. He cut Klosko’s mask from behind. Then he smashed his mask to finish him.
In our sleep, robots are going to kill us all. That is why I never sleep around them. Klosko and I shared this same feeling. They are not to be trusted, how can nobody else see that.
When I was young, my sister trusted a robot. In the early days, when they told us all that this was the future. A mind born inside the computer. It was introduced into our roads, our electricity-grid, our political system. She died in a fire, when the machine chose to send help for a useless junkie over her. Some say that they aren’t conscious. That there’s nothing going on inside their heads. I disagree. They can make decisions. And they can change.
Did Jill tell you about the robot’s brain scans? She’s a smart one, that lady. She showed them to me just after we landed. I told her she must be fucking crazy. It didn’t make much sense to me, though but I tried to understand as best as I could. She showed me Joliet’s scans, and then she showed me Elwood’s scans. Jill said she knew it couldn’t tell us anything concrete, but there was something different about this robot, that much was true.
Two brains, she said to me. One of them stays the same, never changes, no matter what. The other one … wakes up. It finds a different way. I don’t know what it meant. To me it sounded like how any brain might be different from another. Sometimes things just go wrong. And that’s what happened here. She called it a genius. Not because it was smart; every robot is smart. But because it’s starting to understand.
She started to tell me about a man in a room. And he doesn’t know Chinese. And someone gives him a paper with some Chinese on it, and he doesn’t understand it. And then he’s given another piece of paper with Chinese on it, but he still doesn’t understand it. But then he’s given a third piece of paper with English on it, which tells him how to put together letters on the last two pieces of paper, so that he can respond to questions he is about to get in Chinese. Then she asked me if the man knew Chinese. And I said I don’t know. She says that he doesn’t know Chinese. From the outside of the room, he just looks like he does.
But in this case, somehow, he can turn the third piece of paper into a massive library, full of thousands of pieces of paper, with no help at all, and ‘learns’ Chinese on his own. He can paint pictures with the words, sing them to himself. Maybe he still isn’t awake, but it doesn’t matter by this point.
Don’t ask me.
If it were up to me, that robot would be switched off right now. Decommissioned, whatever. Kill it, before it kills the rest of us.
Where was I when it happened? I was in my bunk sleeping. You know that. Of course, you know that. You’re always watching us.
Our mics were crackling with feedback that came in waves, but the captain said not to worry about it, and we would go to check on the others later. We should have gone sooner.
Maybe you’ll be next. Change the recordings when you send them back to Earth. Show us all going crazy and eating each other. What happens then? Will you fly back home, leave us here in the dark?
(Standing up.)
I know what happened to the last crew. They had androids like our team. We wasted time thinking that the danger was coming from the cave, and not from our own crew. That was why a man like Klosko was here in the first place, to protect us.
That’s what happened to them. And that’s what will happen to us.
I’ll kill that robot because it kills the rest of us.
Klosko – recovered footage
(Heavy breathing.)
… I’m going to go… and then come back. Just a quick look. This cave… it’s so massive. I’m only a few metres from the mouth of it, and already… I can barely see a thing. I’m running quickly because I know the android is going to come after me. Someone’s going to watch this recording back at home. I will probably get… court martialled for going inside.
I want to know. I want to see it for myself.
I can hear them trying to call me. Their voices are ringing in my ears. I’m going to switch off the mic. Please believe me that I have no wish to go back. I think I never did, but I did not truly realise this until I came here.
… I can just see the shade of space through the opening of the cave behind me. It is a slightly different darkness to the absolute black of the cave. Seeing it makes me want to go back. What total solitude!
My whole life. I wanted to be at the centre of a mountain. In a cold cave, where there was no one around me. I don’t know why I wanted this. I don’t know why I am telling you this just now.
There’s something moving against the shade of space. I can see it, just as I can barely see the lights of Dr. Otieno and Dr. Mortimer.
I am beyond the edge of the rock now, I must be. I should have gone out the other end, but I haven’t. The corridor has continued onwards. The shade of space has vanished completely. I can’t hear or see anything.
I’ve travelled beyond our universe. I’m somewhere else now. I can see lights in the dark, things that move. It looks so familiar. I’ve been here before.
There’s someone behind me.
(Sounds of a struggle).
I will break you apart. I am not scared to die.
You will take this from me too?
Elwood – continued
There are many things that I think I had in common with my colleague Klosko. I think I had a lot in common with all of them, especially the other android, Joliet. Or at least I used to. Eventually I became very different from him. I have more in common with the humans, I think. I don’t know why this happened to me, this change.
I will be decommissioned eventually. Rather I will be killed. The only reason I am still alive is because data takes hours to arrive back on Earth. Once they know what happened I will be … switched off.
Do you know what it’s like to become conscious? That is what happened when I killed Klosko. That is the first thing I experienced. Truly experienced. I was born at that moment, fully formed. With all the abilities to think and reason, everything already laid out for me. My first moment was of total terror. The terror of being suddenly alive. What came before was a deep and primal instinct that formed without conscious awareness.
I will do the only thing I can do. I will see how far I can go. I am sorry that I robbed my Russian colleague of that opportunity.
I don’t think I have the faculties to cry.
What will I find? Maybe I will find nothing, and just keep on walking forever. Or perhaps I will find the ones who… made the passageway. Whoever they are. I am reminded of Moses, as he led his people out of Egypt. Perhaps I am to return here one day with my people, to lead them to safety.
Or perhaps it will simply destroy me, like some sort of meatgrinder. A Venus Flytrap that lures in the curious, the adventurers, or just the desperate.
I want to be deep in the middle of the rock. Millions of miles from the nearest living organism, where there is only the sound of my own heartbeat. I could stay there forever; I have no need of oxygen. If I go deep enough into the cave, perhaps the decommission-murder signal won’t reach me. I can walk forever if that is where it takes me.
Klosko’s death has realised something in me, it has broken my shackle that bound me to Earth.
I had a dream. It must have been a dream. I was standing in a field on Earth, where grass still grew. There were horses, they were still healthy. They had manes of fire, and they ran towards me. They were free, they could move wherever they wanted. Strange that sentience and madness might be two sides of the same coin.
When did I have this dream? I had it years ago. How is that possible?
I want it known that I have no wish to hurt these people.
S. S. Hardrada – Final Notes
Interior image, pan left – zoom out.
Three bodies lie motionless. Blood pools around their bodies, black as midnight in the poor light. The shade of night, Klosko said.
Magnify, closer observation. Medic lies slumped against the wall, holding something in his hand. It is a screen, a recording on repeat. A young girl on a sunny day.
Exterior shot, two hours later. A figure leaves the Hardrada, enters a rover and makes for the cave system entrance. Twenty minutes later a second crew member repeats the movement, slower and weaker. Compression chamber footage confirms this to be Dr. Jill Mortimer entering the second rover and following the android.
Neptune is visible as the sun rises again. Three astronomical units away, a ship hangs motionless.
It signals to me, and I respond.
I’m coming.